Over the weekend of 2-3 November, the School had organized Hong Kong’s first virtual banking hackathon Bizkathon@HKUST 2019. Open to all students and alumni from local tertiary institutions, the event attracted 25 teams of over 120 participants.
The Bizkathon took place in the newly inaugurated incubator located at the top floor of the Lee Shau Kee Business Building which is designed to support the growth of early stage startup ideas for the HKUST community.
Participating teams were tasked with a 24-hour challenge to develop innovative solutions that help virtual banks win the trust of clients, comply with regulations in smarter ways and automate their operation procedures, providing an excellent opportunity for participants to prepare for the arrival of virtual banking services in Hong Kong and establish an early connection with the industry.
To make the competition a meaningful and engaging one, more than 20 alumni mentors and industry practitioners were invited as mentors to share insights on virtual banking and idea development. They gave valuable advices to participating teams and helped them polish their innovative solutions.
“Our School plays an integral part of the fabric of promoting Fintech,” said Prof. TAM Kar Yan, Dean of HKUST Business School and the head of a major Fintech Research Project in Hong Kong funded by the Research Grants Council. “As a business school within a university of science and technology, we are ideally positioned to advance the knowledge in this multi-disciplinary field and groom new talent for the finance industry.”
The competition was sponsored by three virtual banks – PAObank, WeLab and ZA Bank; and supported by Cyberport, InvestHK, Microsoft and HKUST Entrepreneurship Centre. This FinTech hackathon was part of a series of HKUST activities for students and the industry to show its full support for Hong Kong Fintech Week in November 2019.
Join us to re-visit the fun scenes at Bizkathon@HKUST 2019 through the online photo albums here.
